News

On February 23, President Obama announced that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 legislation that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional and directed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in court.  In response to this announcement, Social Security Admistration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue says that this move will have no immediate affect on payment of benefits to same-sex spouses.    

Leading public health officials and advocates for people with HIV responded swiftly to news that a Montana state legislator, while testifying in favor of retaining the state's death penalty statute, suggested that prisoners with HIV make paper "blow darts", put their blood or saliva on them and throw them at prison guards in an attempt to kill them.

The Center for HIV Law and Policy today released a new briefing paper, What HIV Criminalization Means to Women in the U.S. The paper looks at practical and legal questions often raised about using criminal law as a response to women's risk of HIV infection or transmission. It is intended for use by women affected by HIV and their advocates.

The Center for HIV Law and Policy and its Positive Justice Project has been closely following the proposed Legislative Bill 226 in Nebraska, as well as assisting Nebraska advocates in organizing a response. The Assault with Bodily Fluids Bill would criminalize striking any public safety officer with any bodily fluid (or expelling bodily fluids toward them) and includes a specific increase of penalty to a felony (up to five years and/or $10,000 fine) if the defendant is HIV positive or has Hepatitis B or C.

Send Lawyers, Guides and Money: The Legal Services Needs of People Living with HIV in the Southern United States, describes the reported experiences of persons with HIV and those who provide services to them, with discrimination and other barriers to basic needs, and describes whether they could get legal help to resolve those barriers.  Eighty-five percent of the respondents to CHLP's survey identified problems related to their HIV status that required legal help. Of these people, almost 50% were not able to receive legal help the last time they needed it.

State Officials Have a Legal Obligation to Provide LGBT-Inclusive Sexual Health Education and Medical Care to Young People in Their Charge

The Center for HIV Law and Policy  today released the first legal report and guide on the rights of youth in detention and foster care facilities to comprehensive sexual health care, including sexual medical care, sexuality education, and staff training on sexual orientation and the needs and rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. The publication, Juvenile Injustice: The Unfulfilled Rights of Youth in State Custody to Comprehensive Sexual Health Care, analyzes the foundation of this right and the sexual health care needs of youth in out-of-home care.

In recognition of World AIDS Day and its coverage of stigma, In the Life Media, has produced the first nuanced look at the issue -- and consequences -- of HIV criminalization in a new segment of In the Life. The Center for HIV Law and Policy and its Positive Justice Project will be featured in the program, "The Cost of Stigma: Legalizing Stigma," currently airing on public television stations nationwide. To watch the episode click here.

This manual of state and federal laws and cases is the first volume of a multi-part manual that CHLP's Positive Justice Project is developing for legal and community advocates on HIV criminalization. Thirty-four states and two U.S. territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes and thirty-six states have reported proceedings in which HIV-positive people have been arrested and/or prosecuted for consensual sex, biting, and spitting. At least eighty such prosecutions have occurred in the last two years alone. The work of CHLP's Positive Justice Project focuses on the terrible injustice of HIV criminalization and hopes that this manual, and future publications, will make it easier for advocates to defend against these discriminatory prosecutions.

Legal Guide Shows Irrational Treatment of HIV in Laws, Arrests and Sentencing

The Center for HIV Law and Policy has released the first comprehensive analysis of HIV-specific criminal laws and prosecutions in the United States. The publication, Ending and Defending Against HIV Criminalization: State and Federal Laws and Prosecutions, covers policies and cases in all fifty states, the military, federal prisons and U.S. territories. People are being imprisoned for decades, and in many cases have to register as sex offenders, as a consequence of exaggerated fears about HIV. Most of these cases involve consensual sex or conduct such as spitting and biting that has only a remote possibility of HIV exposure. This publication is intended as a resource for lawyers and community advocates on the laws, cases, and trends that define HIV criminalization in the United States.

Access to housing, whether or where one can work, the extent to which one can participate in public service – all of these basics of an independent and responsible adult life are curtailed or eliminated for many people who pass through the criminal justice system. In view of the clearly race-based and class-based slant on so many criminal enforcement policies, these restrictions on independent adult life have a destructively bigger impact on the poor and on people of color -- people disproportionately affected by HIV. NPA's advocacy with HUD seeks to address a slice of this society-defeating inequity.